Abelisauridae
Not to be confused with Abelisauria | image = Aucasaurus running 01 by 2ndecho-d51qjx3.png|thumb | image_caption = An artist's illustration of Aucasaurus garridoi | image_width = 240px | regnum = Animalia | phylum = Chordata | classis = Sauropsida | clade1 = Dinosauria | superordo = Theropoda | binomial = Abelisarus comauensis | binomial_authority = Bonaparte & Novas, 1985|familia = Abelisauridae|familia_authority = Bonaprte & Novas, 1985| subdivision_ranks = Subgroups | subdivision = * Chenanisaurus * Eoabelisaurus * Kryptops * Rugops * Tarascosaurus? * Vitakridrinda? * Xenotarsosaurus * Ceratosauridae? * Carnotaurinae * Majungasaurinae }} Abelisauridae (meaning "Abel's lizards") is a family (or clade) of ceratosaurian theropod dinosaurs. Abelisaurids thrived during the Cretaceous Period, on the ancient southern supercontinent of Gondwana, and today their fossil remains are found on the modern continents of Africa and South America, as well as on the Indian subcontinent and the island of Madagascar. Reports based on isolated teeth show the occurrence in the Late Jurassic of Portugal, and the confirmed existence of European Abelisaurids comes from the Late Cretaceous of France with Arcovenator. Abelisaurids first appear in the fossil record of the early middle Jurassic period, and at least two genera (the Moroccan Chenanisaurus and the Madagascan Majungasaurus) survived until the end of the Mesozoic era 66 million years ago. Like most theropods, abelisaurids were carnivorous bipeds. They were characterized by stocky hindlimbs and extensive ornamentation of the skull bones, with grooves and pits. In many abelisaurids, like Carnotaurus, the forelimbs are vestigial, the skull is shorter and bony crests grow above the eyes. Most of the known abelisaurids would have been between 5 and 9 meters (17 to 30 ft) in length, from snout to tip of tail, with a new and as yet unnamed specimen from northwestern Turkana in Kenya, Africa reaching a possible length of 11–12 meters (36 to 39 feet). Before becoming well known, fragmentary abelisaurid remains were occasionally misidentified as possible South American tyrannosaurids."Abelisaurus." In: Dodson, Peter & Britt, Brooks & Carpenter, Kenneth & Forster, Catherine A. & Gillette, David D. & Norell, Mark A. & Olshevsky, George & Parrish, J. Michael & Weishampel, David B. The Age of Dinosaurs. Publications International, LTD. p. 105. . Phylogeny Below is a cladogram generated by Tortosa et al. (2014) in the description of Arcovenator and creation of a new subfamily Majungasaurinae. |label2=Brachyrostra |2= }}}}}}}}}}}}}} Ilokelesia was originally described as a sister group to Abelisauroidea.Coria, R.A. & Salgado, L. "A basal Abelisauria Novas 1992 (Theropoda- Ceratosauria) from the Cretaceous Period of Patagonia, Argentina". In: Perez-Moreno, B, Holtz, T.R., Sanz, J.L., & Moratalla, J. (Eds.). Aspects of Theropod Paleobiology. Gaia 15:89–102. printed until 2000 However, Sereno tentatively places it closer to Abelisaurus than to noasaurids, a result which agrees with several other recent analyses. If a stem-based definition is used, Ilokelesia and Rugops are therefore basal abelisaurids. However, as they are more basal than Abelisaurus, they are outside of Abelisauridae if the node-based definition is adopted. Ekrixinatosaurus was also published in 2004, so it was not included in Sereno's analysis. However, an independent analysis, performed by Jorge Calvo and colleagues, shows it to be an abelisaurid. Some scientists include Xenotarsosaurus from Argentina and Compsosuchus from India as basal abelisaurids,while others consider them to be outside Abelisauroidea. The French Aniksosaurus, Genusaurus and Tarascosaurus have also been called abelisaurids but both are fragmentary and may be more basal ceratosaurians. '' life reconstruction'']] With the description of Skorpiovenator in 2008, Canale et al. published another phylogenetic analysis focusing on the South American abelisaurids. In their results, they found that all South American forms, including Ilokelesia (except Abelisaurus), grouped together as a sub-clade of carnotaurines, which they named Brachyrostra. With the description of Eoabelisaurus, Diego Pol and Oliver W. M. Rauhut (2012) combined these analyses and added ten new characters. The following cladogram follows their analysis. }} |label2= Neoceratosauria |2= |label2= Abelisauroidea |2= |label2= Abelisauridae |2= |label2= Brachyrostra |2= |label2= Carnotaurini |2= }} }} }} }} }} }} }} }} }} Gallery '']] '']] '']] '']] '']] '']] '']] '']] Category:Theropod Category:Jurassic reptiles Category:Cretaceous dinosaurs Category:Taxonomy